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Published: June 18th 2011
The Flights
Our flight from Australia to Singapore to Kuala Lumpur to Sri Lanka was a really long journey. We slept at the airport in Singapore (a nice lady told us where we could find a quiet, out-of-the-way area to set up camp. I felt like a refugee, camping on the floor with about 50 others overnight! I had a good sleep though, she was right, there was nobody around other then our fellow campers!
In KL we had an afternoon and evening to wait, so we got a hotel room to sleep. Our flight was at 5am, but we ended up sleeping until 7am, instead of waking up at 3 to go to the airport. Well. That was nice. I guess that's what happens when you try to travel for 48 hours non-stop. Neither Trung nor I heard our alarms...
Air Asia has a ticket counter in KL Sentral (the central terminal) so we were able to re-book the flight. A cost of $100, but something bad had to happen eventually, right!? KL is so cool though, and I feel like I know the city now, so we had a great time just wandering around taking in
the Eating and Shopping that we both loved so much the 1st time!
Upon arriving in Sri Lanka, we quickly get our bearings at the empty airport. Seriously, its 10am and the airport is EMPTY. After going through customs, we're met by a couple of money changers and taxi drivers. One of the drivers convince us that the hour-long ride to the city is worth $20 (2000 rupees) and he takes us downtown. (on the way back to the airport we spent 50 rupees each, but I digress)
Colombo
Colombo reminds me of any other south asian city. The streets are crowded and twisty, there are cars and scooters everywhere and it's dusty. The big difference: street cows. There are cows everywhere! Someone once told us not to spend too much time in Colombo, that it's not really worth staying in, so we're going to take their advice.
I know we need to go to Kandy, a city in the mountains about 4 hours from Colombo. I want to get to a quiet city so we can get our bearings in Sri Lanka, and it's a jumping-off point for many of the ancient ruins in the
centre of the country, and the famous beaches in the South.
Sri Lanka ended its 20+ year civil war in just 2008, so I thought the scars of war would be everywhere, on the people, the government and the buildings. I'm not surprised as we drive into the Fort Railway Station that there are many police and army checkpoints scattered throughout the city, although none of them seem to stop anyone anymore. The people are amazing, however. I've never seen so many smiling, happy faces in one day (until our 2nd day in Sri Lanka). Everyone is genuinely happy to see me and Trung, smiling and waving again and again as we head downtown. Its amazing!
The fort railway station is an old colonial station. It's quite nice from the outside, if a little stained from rain and dust. There's a 'tourist information' booth in the middle of the railway building, so Trung and I enter the tiny airconditioned booth to speak with the gentlemen inside.
They first tell us how to get to Kandy, and that there is a train leaving in an hour, then the tell us about their government run tourist service to give
a 5 day tour of the Central and Eastern parts of the country. I'm thinking in my mind that these are the areas hardest hit by the war (other than the far North) so the government is really pushing tourism in these areas. However, the tour consists of 5 days seeing the largest of the ancient cities and palaces, with a drop-off in Trincomalee, a city on the East coast that has been practically cut off from the rest of Sri Lanka during the war.
Now, Trincomalee (a.k.a. Trinco) also has a world-famous beach, so we agree to the low cost of the tour and sign ourselves up! For $36/day, we are transported by train to Kandy, hotels with breakfast, and a personal driver for 5 days to take us clear across the country, and to whatever sights we want to see. Its a great deal, and I'm glad we found this guy, because otherwise booking busses, hotels, etc. etc. would have taken forever. This way, we can see all the sights in 5 days and end up on a stretch of white sand. Amazing!
We decide to tuck into our first Sri Lankan meal, as we hadn't
eaten in hours and hours, so we wander down the street from the railway station to a dark food stall on the edge of a market. We end up with what I later learn are string hoppers (noodles somehow arranged into cookie shaped segments, so you can pick up stuff with them) and chicken curry. I think there's sand in the string hoppers (a bit crunchy), but it's delish anyways, and for $3 for both Trung and I to eat. It's a good deal, people!
The Train
The train is already loading by the time we get back, and we're rushed to the 2nd class car to find a seat. There's no 1st class on this train and there are now no 2nd class either. Now, we paid about $1.50 for 2nd class, there is no 1st class. Now, I want my 50 cents worth of 2nd class, but we're brought to the 3rd class car to sit. It's cool though, there's some really interesting people on the train!
We're sitting with a guy from the Netherlands that signed up for the same type of tour, so we're all heading to Kandy together and then to the
same government hotel. At our bench of 6 there's also a small boy of about 10 who is really shy and on his way home from school for the weekend, and a lady who might be 100, or 50, I'm not sure, but she has a ton of rice bags filled with...something... luggage?
The trains in Sri Lanka are seriously old, no safety features, no doors, no windows, just padded straight-back benches and a steel shell. It's great! The wind in our hair, the sound of the train chugging along, 5000 feet up into the mountains. I shared a peice of orange with the lady, and she gave me a big bag of strange mini-pumpkin looking berries that look quite strange and taste really sour. MMMMmmmmmMMM! Yummy, I tell her, and she smiles a big, semi-toothey grin. Cutest lady ever.
Kandy
By the time we get to Kandy, the train has stopped quite a few times, and the train is full of people standing, sitting on the steats, on the floor, carrying any and all types of vegetables, packages, selling deep fried fritters, fish, begging for money, singing, it's just a chaotic, beautiful time!
Kandy is
a surprisingly large and bustling city. It's the gateway to tea country and is situated in a mountain valley around a lake, 5000 feet above Colombo. There's a busy market, winding streets, the beautful lake, and an ancient Buddhist temple containing one of the Buddha's eye teeth. The temple is a pilgramage site for many Buddhists around the world. Kandy is an important military position as well, at a convergence of the highways North-South through the mountains. At one point during the war, the LTTE Was able to plant a bomb at the entrance gate to the tooth temple and detonated a large chunk of the gate. Now, there is a police barricade about 1km from the temple in both directions and the main road is closed. All traffic through Kandy must now travel around the lake on a long, winding road. There are several bunkers along the highway with um.. fox holes? The bunkers are either sand bags or dirt with small holes at the top to stick out a gun.
Our hotel is amazing, it's on the side of a mountain outside of town with a view into the surrounding valleys. It was previously owned by a
swiss couple, so it really feels like we're in Switzerland (including some Sauna benches used as piknic tables!). We're able to spend the next day and a half exploring Kandy, a super busy, super dirty city where some pretty unrelenting touts follow us through town and then actually get angry when we follow up on our promises not to buy anything at their store but agree to follow them to the store so they'll stop following us. C'mon, people! Don't get angry at honest non-customers!
We met up with Gharret (the netherlands) for dinner at a pub 'downtown' and ended up meeting a great couple from Ireland, who seem to be the only other tourists in Sri Lanka! Seriously, walking down the street there are no other tourists at all, so Trung and I stick out like a sore thumb. It's ok though, because everyone is extremely friendly, smiling, waving, asking for us to take their photo so they can see, etc. etc. However, it's kind of hard to pick out the 10% of the crowd who only want to talk so they can sell us something...
Trung and I both badly needed haircuts at this point, so we
wandered the streets for a few hours looking for a place, with none to be had. There are 'saloons' everywhere, but not for drinking, only for women's hair cuts.
A nice man whom we had seen on the previous day saw us on the street again on our 2nd day and offered to take us to a saloon for a haircut. He led us on a wild goose chase through the city looking for one that was open, but finally our perseverence won out and we found a place on the 3rd floor of a building somewhere downtown. It was an interesting haircut, the guy used a comb with a razor taped to it, instead of an electric 'buzzer' but the system worked really well!
In the morning on our 3rd day in Sri Lanka, our driver is ready and waiting after our breakfast in the 'swiss hotel' to take us down out of the mountains, heading North to see the splendour of Dambulla, Sigiria, Pollonoruwa, and Anuradhapura, the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka's past.
Those photos are amazing, so don't miss it!
xoxo
Andy
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Auntie Barb
non-member comment
Kandy isn't always sweet
I just read your newest blog and caught up with the last few blogs. We now have high speed, and it is so nice to be able to read through everything, and see the pics, with ease. You are going to be in western Europe when you are going to be in eastern Europe. The pics are great! Take care of yourselves over there, and be very careful. It sure would be neat if we could meet up when we are in Europe. xoxoxo Aunt Barb